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Making a Difference by Building Relationships

March 12, 2019 | Blog

I began my career with the ambition
of “making a difference.” Some colleagues scoffed at that saying the test
of whether you made a difference was removing your hand from a bucket of water
and seeing your mark. Clearly, they had low aspirations and were not
encouraging of mine.

Today’s energy companies are facing
a similar challenge. Most truly want to make a difference, but are they
leaving their mark on the behaviors and decisions of their customers? Are
they relevant? Very simply, are they influential?

The late Jim Rogers, iconic former
chairman of Duke Energy, said it best when advising involvement in any big
decisions saying, “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu!”

If energy companies want to manage
their futures with renewables, energy technology, energy efficiency (EE), and
demand response (DR), they can’t take sides on an issue and be for or against
any idea. Some ideas work for some customers. Some work for
others. Being part of customer energy decisions gives the utility the
best possible position to preserve and build customer relationships while also
achieving financial success for both customers and the serving energy company.

Therefore, if the energy company no
longer needs EE or DR resources, they may eliminate the need for incentives on
these activities. However, it does not minimize the value that energy
company has when a customer has questions or needs in these areas. There
is no more powerful customer engagement opportunity than to work with customers
on their needs and interests. And, through that dialogue, the energy
company will likely find out what else the customer needs and can seek mutual
benefit.

Here is a personal story that
brought this home to me. I have raised four daughters and watched them
grow from babies to self-sufficient adults. One day, when my oldest
daughter was 16, she came to me with a question I was not prepared to
discuss. She said she wanted to talk to me about getting on “the
pill.” My first reaction was to blurt out something stupid like “go to
your room and don’t come out until you are 30.” Fortunately, in my flabbergasted
state, the only words that came out were, “tell me more about that.”

She elaborated that she felt she
was overweight and heard there were diet pills a doctor could prescribe that
would help her lose some pounds. After picking myself up off the floor, I told
her that we should first take a closer look at her diet and exercise and see
how far that would go. Fortunately, that gave me some time to prepare
what to say when she did lose the weight and wanted to talk to me about another
pill. The experience made me realize, we can keep open dialogues or shut
them down depending on how we handle genuine inquiries.

Perhaps you are laughing at all
this, thinking it’s not relevant to your situation, but it is. The point
is, my daughter came to me and wanted to talk about “options” in her
life. She could have gotten all the information she needed elsewhere …
probably without the loving cautions a parent would naturally offer.

You have a similar responsibility
as a trusted energy provider and member of your community. You work hard
to engage your customers, to be relevant, and to have influence. We know
that because Apogee prides itself on two decades of partnering with utilities
from coast-to-coast to successfully engage and educate their customers.
Over the years, we have refined and perfected methods that deliver powerful
messaging efficiently and surprisingly cost-effectively.